Ras Soda

Ras Soda is a small Roman temple in Alexandria featuring four white marble columns standing on a raised platform. An ascending staircase leads to the structure, which has two distinct levels designed for worship on the upper area and practical activities on the lower level.

A Roman charioteer named Ezadoras commissioned the temple in the second century AD as an offering to the goddess Isis. The site was later relocated to the cemetery area of the Latins in 1994 to protect the remains from urban development pressures.

The four columns inside represent different deities: Hermanubis with a jackal, Harpocratis as a child, Isis with sacred water, and Osiris. You can see how Egyptian and Roman religious ideas mixed together in the carvings and symbols that still decorate the space.

The temple sits on a platform accessible by climbing stairs, making it easy to view the white marble columns from different angles. The location in the cemetery area is quiet and allows you to walk around and examine the structure and its carvings at a comfortable pace.

This is the only private temple ever discovered in Alexandria, setting it apart from the city's major public temples. A charioteer built it as a personal thank-offering rather than a public religious institution, a choice that gives it a distinctive character.